From Hell’s Heart: Top 5 Comebacks

We placed some constraints on what we deem a “comeback” to be. The band must have been broken-up, or on hiatus/dormant for at least 10 years. The band must of returned with a full-length studio album. Bands that have long periods between albums (i.e. W.A.S.P. Nightwish, Metallica) do not count because they were active touring, recording, putting out live albums etc.

Currently on a very successful road trip across North America with CONVERGE, PALLBEARER and label-mates VALLENFYRE as part of the “Decibel Magazine Tour” and promoting their At War With Reality album, Swedish melodic death metal pioneers AT THE GATES have announced a very special live stream of their upcoming show in Chicago on Monday, April 6th via Yahoo. More details here from an official press release:

AT THE GATES has teamed up with Live Nation and Yahoo to live-stream their April 6th concert live from Chicago, IL. This is one of 365 concerts to stream over a 12-month period on the Live Nation Channel on Yahoo Screen.

Interview with At the Gates

Having come back from the ashes to reform back in 2007, At the Gates had previously stated that there would be no further material being recorded to succeed the 1995 release of ‘Slaughter of the Soul’. However, 2014 sees the release of highly anticipated and widely acclaimed ‘At War With Reality’. To promote this, ATG are embarking on a European Tour with Swiss black metal giants Triptykon and fellow Swedes Morbus Chron. We caught up with vocalist Tomas Lindberg ahead of the opening night at London’s HMV Forum.

At the Gates with Triptykon

@ HMV Forum, London

4th December 2014

Having released their first album in 19 years, it was a surprise for many, albeit a welcome one, to see At the Gates touring again. When the band first reformed in 2007, they had released a statement that there would be no further records under the name At The Gates, evidently with their fingers crossed behind their back. The new record; ‘At War With Reality’ was both highly anticipated and widely acclaimed and this was to be the first night of a European tour, at the HMV Forum in London, to promote the album with support from Swiss black metal icons Triptykon and fellow Swedes Morbus Chron.

AT THE GATES with Rotten Sound

The 22nd of November

Nosturi Helsinki Finland

The Swedish legendary At The Gates returned with the ultimate revenge by releasing the outstanding album AT WAR WITH REALITY. The album is definitely a piece of evidence of the band’s skills and ability to create the catchy and killer riff filled songs. However At the Gates have visited Finland by doing a few festival shows since the return, but never ever played any single club gig not in the present day nor in the heyday. Therefore the three gig tour in Finland was basically about time, as At The Gates has definitely gained the cult and fanatical following up here in Finland.

The Nosturi club was totally packed on Saturday night. Before At The Gates’ riffmaelstrom hit the stage the domestic grind core mongers Rotten Sound conquered the stage to warm-up the audience. The four piece’s 30 minute set of intensive grinding was the pure pleasure of the sonic torment from the beginning to the end without any mercy. Rotten Sound’s frontman’s comments could be found a bit of humouristic and amusing. But he has always got the good way of expressing himself with the good sense of humor. Rotten Sound is always extreme, brutal uncompromising live act, no doubt about that. The audience could have been more brutal though.

The more and more people was arriving before the opening intro roared out. Finally the place is totally packed, quite close to sold-out. That was a good sign as some metal gigs have suffered from the low attendances and it has been written and spoken the metal is in the crisis in Finland.

The masters of the old school Gothenburg death metal proved to be in the vicious strike already on the first opening riff of “Death And The Labyrinth”. The frontman Tompa’s unique screaming vocals is a pure trademark of the sounds for At The Gates. The lethal catchy riffs by the guitar duet; Anders Björler and Martin Larsson, worked and sounded utter tight and above all razor sharp. Jonas Bjorler hit the bass with the raging passion As stated a bit earlier Tompa’s sound being unique, but it has that tight and unique dry approach. He hasn’t lost any inch instead during these years. Instead he encouraged the audience go utter beserk. At The Gates’s older material from the 90’s is still as relevant as the present days. It still sounds refreshing new and brilliant. Those songs haven’t aged at all. As for the newer material off the AT WAR WITH REALITY album fitting along with the older material more than perfectly. Of course the older songs like Suicide Nation, Kingdom Gone etc caused the energetic ballistic reactions amongst the audience. In general the the near 90 minute set included a surprising lot of tunes picked up from the classical SLAUGHTER OF THE SOULS album. Of course the songs from the other albums played the tight important role in the setlist. To be honest At The Gates still has its own grip, as the five piece still kicked and whipped. It was awesome to witness the legendary outfit in the club atmosphere, giving more intimate feeling. Hopefully ATG will arrive to do club tours. If ATG will be around your corner, go check them out.

El altar del Dios desconocidoDeath and the LabyrinthSlaughter of the SoulColdAt War with RealityTerminal Spirit DiseaseRaped by the Light of ChristThe Circular RuinsUnder a Serpent SunWindowsCity of MirrorsSuicide NationHeroes and TombsNauseaWorld of LiesThe Burning DarknessThe Book of SandBlinded by FearKingdom GoneThe Night Eternal

The release date for “At War With Reality”, the much anticipated new studio album by Swedish melodic Death Metal pioneers AT THE GATES, is drawing closer. Here are the exact release dates by territory:

The time is come now to reveal the album’s first promotional video clip for the song “Death And The Labyrinth”. Directed by Patric Ullaeus (In Flames, Arch Enemy, Lacuna Coil, etc.), the vibrant clip can be seen here:

AT THE GATES: ‘SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL’ FULL DYNAMIC RANGE VINYL OUT NOW

SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL, the definitive melodic death metal album from Gothenburg legends AT THE GATES, is available now on limited edition Full Dynamic Range vinyl LP.

Originally released in 1995, SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL is regularly cited as one of the most important and influential metal albums of all time, and was long regarded as AT THE GATES’ final opus until the band announced they would release a new studio album this year.

The album has been specially remastered from the original tapes in Full Dynamic Range (FDR) audio, allowing the music’s nuances to shine through and giving the whole album a more ferocious and dynamic sound than ever before.

SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL is available now on Full Dynamic Range vinyl in black, as well as in the following limited colours:

Ever since the pioneers of the “Gothenburg style” melodic death metal sound, AT THE GATES, have announced a comeback studio album with the classic line-up of their latest masterpiece, Slaughter Of The Soul (1995), the anticipation within the scene has been immense. AT THE GATES is now in full pre-production mode and expects to be recording their upcoming album, At War With Reality, in June/July with a tentative release in October/November 2014 via Century Media Records worldwide.

AT THE GATES has now launched a video featuring updates on the new material’s pre-production process. Check it out below.

Hellfest Festival 2013

@ Clisson, France

21st– 23rd June 2013

Review by Kirsty Birkett-Stubbs
Photography by Tess Donohoe

It may be some people’s epitome of hell, Michael Buble fans I’m looking at you, but for the metal/rock community Hellfest’s towering gateway looks positively pearly. This year’s line-up is so jam-packed that I was looking for the little glass jars and labels. You’d make a fortune if you could bottle any number of the diverse scope of bands on the bill, with the riffs left in natch, but I’d like them to play their sets first.

Once inside that gateway the layout is much the same as last year, and that isn’t meant in a well-they-clearly-couldn’t-be-arsed sense, because Hellfest could teach most others a thing or 20 on how to put together a fan-friendly festival. Except when it comes to the number of toilets on site that is.

Whilst the Hellfest tree still dominates in its stark simplicity, the hidden beer gardens have gained a snazzy gateway of their own, which invites you into the woodlands. Instead of a fairytale monster at the end of the path though, you’ll find a winebar, which is win-win really. And at night the scrap-metal merch stands and bars still glow with their own rooftop fires.

Stage-wise we’ve got Main Stage 1 and 2, which continue their staggered times so that as one plays, the other sets up, and vice versa. The result is no waiting around for soundchecks or bands to start, just back-to-back bam-bam-bam metal. A similar set-up is in place at the Altar and the Temple, where you can find black metal, death metal and the like, then there’s the Valley which is home to the stoner and doom types, and the Warzone where the punk and hardcore drops.

SWEDENROCK FESTIVAL 2013

Article and pictures by Arto Lehtinen and Marko Syrjälä

“Welcome to the show” – welcomed by KISS when headlining the second day of the Sweden Rock fest. Well, once again the Finnish Metal-Rules.com team made their annual roadtrip to Sweden Rock. Metal Rules has covered Swedenrock since 2001, therefore it is quite logical to cover the festival again. The 2013 line up presented a wide range of metal and hard rock. Over 70 metal and rock bands offered one hell of an experience for attendees. Sweden Rock has been successful during the past ten years as the festival has always been sold out. This year wasn’t any exception as the fest was sold out despite the lousy economic situation worldwide. It has become quite logical for us to give an in depth article on several bands performing at Sweden Rock to all the readers out there. The weather was tremendous during these four days. The Metal-Rules.com team was there witnessing bands, not for having some beach party crap. Unfortunately, we are not able to cover every bloody band, but hopefully you will have a pleasant reading experience… Rock on!